1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus, method and program for synthesizing a plurality of images to produce one image and display it.
2. Description of the Related Art
According to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-134371, a camera is capable of pick up images from the start to the end of shooting as one image, because it is provided with a calendar clock which obtains the time, an image pickup device which captures a plurality of object images for each of the time, a matching device which performs a pattern matching for searching a matched portion from among images before and after the plurality of captured images, an image extracting device which extracts part of the image in the longitudinal direction or part of the image in the transverse direction from the images subjected to the pattern matching and an image synthesizing device which joins together the part of the extracted image for each of the time.
According to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-156818, various variables and an internal buffer are initialized. A slit image is generated from a video frame currently captured by utilizing the detected numerical values (the position and speed of a moving body). A determination is made as to whether the generated slit image belongs to the left side or the right side. A panoramic image stored in an internal buffer is scrolled in the left or right direction only by the width w of the slit image generated at the preceding step. The slit image obtained at a step 302 is copied on the space of the internal buffer obtained by the scroll processing at the preceding step to obtain a current panoramic image. Finally, a determination is made as to whether a system finishes operating.
According to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-69293, an area wider than a field image captured by a CCD is set as a still image area. A camera is moved longitudinally and transversely to capture images all over the area. The captured area is stored in a frame memory and displayed on a finder as a captured image. The area not yet captured is displayed in blue as a non-captured area. A latest image is displayed on a moving image area. If a duplication rate between the field images in an area and an adjacent area is smaller than a minimum duplication rate, the portion is displayed as a missing area. If the missing area protrudes from the area, the area is automatically extended.
In the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 2003-134371 and 2000-156818, however, it is unclear how images are superimposed between frames, a gap is apt to be formed between the frames and images may not be able to be synthesized during capturing. In the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-69293, the area of a synthesized still picture is equal to an integral multiplication of a captured area, which makes it difficult to capture images at an angle of view desired by a user and record the images.